Reviewed by: Steve (Unregistered User)
,
Paddler
Price Paid:
$0.00 Summary:
I purchased a Captiva to give me more of a touring boat than the Acadia. I have mixed feelings. While the Captiva is 16' long, for the same relaxed paddling cadence, I feel the Acadia gets up to speed quicker. My main problem with the Captiva is that my legs fall asleep. This has been an ongoing problem since I got about 220 pounds in weight. I think a large part of it is due to the fact that the deck is lower and narrower than the Acadia. I can't put my knees as far apart and it pushes my thighs down on the seat. Of course any boat "can" put legs to sleep. My canoe does and it doesn't have a deck. Overall, the Captiva manuvers pretty well. It turns fine on flat water. Moving water as in around a sand bar gets tricky sometimes. It is a stable boat, but not very fast. This seems to be a common problem. I find it somewhat tiring to paddle all day when compared with my Acadia. The price is excellent for this type of boat. The Carolina had too low a deck for me to get under, so I chose the Captiva. If I was doing it over, I think I would give serious consideration to the Dagger Savannah. It has more room under the deck and is supposedly more nimble. As of the present time, I am pondering if I should buy the Wilderness Systems Tarpon 160. It is a sit on top with touring qualities. No sleepy legs or having to balance with a paddle while trying to slither out on a muddy river bank. Just sit down, paddle, stand up. "Nuff said! I will say that the Captiva is a good deal for the money and not terribly slow. If you want a solid boat at a good price, that is stable, with HUGE cargo capacity, and faster than a canoe, this is your boat. I paddled the Okefenokee Swamp in it, and I had a tent, sleeping bag and pad, lawn chair, tripod, food, clothes, fireplace logs, a case of Diet Coke, water (including a collapsable bag), a radio, camera, small grill to use on the chickee platform, and probably other things I can't remember and there was enough room to load all that! It sat low in the water and was sluggish to paddle, but it held the gear and me! It was heck though to try and get out of it to take a pee in a swamp. I had to pull it against a peat bog, up on a tree root, hold on to a tree, precariously pull myself up and hope the ground did not give way and I would fall back into the swamp. Then I had to balance on the tree root and whiz. That is the biggest problem of a decked boat for chubbier people. It is hard to sometimes crawl back out of the cockpt, especially if there isn't much to hold on to, or if your legs fall asleep. Happy Paddling! ~Steve Customer Service:
Friendly reps. Sometimes takes a while to get email responses. Similar Products Used:
Perception Eclipse (tippy but FAST)
Perception Spectrum (predecessor to the Carolina)
Swifty 3.1 and Acadia by Perception
Current Designs fiberglass yak (don't remember the model, but SWEET to padd
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